Trump, the Clintons and the GOP: This Is Who They Are

This is it, folks. Yesterday’s leaked tape from 2005 of Donald Trump both saying that, as a star, he “can do anything” to women, including “grab them by the p**sy” and admitting he tried to sleep with (in his words, “f*ck”) a married woman — those comments have finally set off the uproar from Republican leaders that has been a long time coming.

Trump is shedding support from his own party to an unprecedented degree in a general election and it’s no surprise, considering the new level of despicable we’ve reached. But if you’re surprised that he is that kind of person, you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s been obvious for a long time to anyone who didn’t want to be in denial so they could vote against Hillary Clinton with a clear conscience.

This is who he is. The UK Telegraph has a tracker of sexist comments Donald has made that they’ve been updating as the campaign has gone on. The list is horrifyingly long. Some have absurdly made the claim that this particular comment isn’t important because was 11 years ago, but other comments of this sort have been recorded this year.

Trump’s complete lack of character is sufficient reason not to support him for the presidency and it should have been enough not to vote for him in the primary. That is to say nothing of his past liberal policies, his inexperience and his shallow, conservative-caricaturing and often downright stupid plans.

But one of the biggest reasons not to entrust the Republican nomination to him is because he is a goldmine of nastiness and garbage for the Clinton machine to dig up. It was always going to be the case that all of this would be dredged up if there were any threat to Hillary becoming president of the United States.

Conservative Trump supporters (amazingly, they still exist) are whining now that this is just a distraction from a Wikileaks dump of emails showing just how beholden to Wall Street she really is, proving Bernie Sanders and a number of Republican presidential candidates right. They argue it isn’t a coincidence that Trump’s tape leaked now.

They are totally right. And that’s the point.

That’s who the Clintons are: an incredibly efficient mudslinging machine guaranteed to release a fog of doubt anytime they are threatened, which is why any attempt to beat her with a candidate with so much baggage was doomed. Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Ted Cruz — any of them had a better chance to beat Hillary Clinton.

They have finally reacted the way they should have long ago. At this point, there is probably no way to force Trump from the ticket. The only option I know of, which is unlikely, is for him to drop out himself. Republicans could and should have done something months ago when they had reservations about him.

But they don’t have the guts to make the tough call, which is the reason Trump became popular in the first place. Because that’s who they are.